Minneapolis, MN (PressExposure) September 27, 2012 -- The 2nd Annual Drug Repositioning and Indications Discovery Conference is being held on October 23-24, 2012 in San Francisco, CA. This conference will feature a variety of speakers from academia, industry, non-profits and government. Their perspectives will provide insight into the field of drug repositioning and the challenges and successes in getting a repositioned drug to the marketplace. Building on last year's conference, the 2nd Annual Drug Repositioning and Indications Discovery Conference will cover what has changed in the last year and what continues to drive interest in drug repositioning.

Since the development of new drugs can be time consuming and expensive, drug repositioning has emerged as a potentially cost-effective and quicker alternative to provide new drugs for pharmaceutical companies' waning pipelines. With new technologies and approaches, drug repositioning has become more streamlined and less accidental than it was in the past. By using a more systematic approach, existing compounds are being tested for both common and neglected diseases faster and with more success.

Dr. Aris Persidis, President and Co-Founder, Biovista Inc. will discuss using systematic drug repositioning to map drugs and diseases against each other. He will provide case studies in both rare and mainstream diseases, including multiple sclerosis and Friedreich's ataxia.

Dr. Barry Bunin, CEO and President, Collaborative Drug Discovery, will chair an exciting panel session entitled A New Era for Drug Repositioning: How Successes and Partnerships are Changing the Drug Development Process. Panel members include Dr. Christine Colvis, Program Officer, National Institutes of Health, National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS), Dr. David Cavalla, Founder, Numedicus Ltd., and Dr. Christopher Lipinski, Scientific Advisor, Melior Discovery.

Sasha K. Richardson, Vice President, GfK Bridgehead will share insight into pricing, reimbursement, access challenges and opportunities for repositioning therapies from both an EU and US payer perspective. Her presentation will be a mix of historic pitfalls/successes and forward thinking strategies to help navigate the cost constrained environment for reimbursing repositioned therapies.